The Meetinghouse Readings, Canaan, NH’s grassroots literary series, presents its 33rd season of outstanding and emerging voices in fiction, poetry and nonfiction beginning Thursday July 7, 2022. Founding moderator William Craig returns to the podium to welcome poets Bianca Stone, Matthew Olzmann and Justin Bigos. Crowd favorites Ernest Hebert and Steve Almond revisit the Meetinghouse to read from new novels. And the series is proud to celebrate Night of the Living Rez, the first collection of stories by Morgan Talty.
Talty’s stories are set on the Penobscot reservation in Maine, where families and community struggle to cope with poverty, racism and haunted histories. A 2016 Dartmouth alum, Talty is a 2022 Creative writing Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Vermonter Bianca Stone’s poems, poetry comics and nonfiction have been collected in three books and appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine and many other journals. Harvard Review praises Matthew Olzmann’s third book of poems, Constellation Route, for imaginative compassion that can “thaw the grim numbness” we feel in broken times. Justin Bigos’ poems, stories and nonfiction essays appear in publications including New England Review, The Seattle Review, Ploughshares and many more; his latest collection of poems is Mad River.
Ernest Hebert is the author of a renowned series of novels set in the fictional New Hampshire town of Darby; his new novel, Whirlybird Island, is centered in Darby but travels the world as its characters cope with the murderous legacy of overseas wars.
Shelf Awareness calls metajournalist and short-story writer Steve Almond’s new novel, All the Secrets of the World, “A triumph of storytelling.” His recent works include William Stoner and the Battle for the Inner Life and Bad Stories, a literary investigation of the 2016 election.
July 7 Steve ALMOND (All the Secrets of the World, Candyfreak) / Bianca STONE (The Mobius Strip Club of Grief)
July 14 Ernest HEBERT (Whirlybird Island, Spoonwood) / Matthew OLZMANN (Constellation Route)
July 21 Justin BIGOS (Double Clothesline, Mad River) / Morgan TALTY (Night of the Living Rez)
As ever, the readings will be held in the beautiful 1793 Meetinghouse on Canaan Street. Admission is free; homemade refreshments are memorably worthy of generous donations. Authors’ books will be on sale, courtesy of the Norwich Bookstore.
ALL READINGS BEGIN AT 7:30 P.M.. Please, No Infants, Toddlers or Squirmers!
For more information, visit meetinghousereadings.wordpress.com or call 603 523 9650 Canaan Town Library
